☕️ 2025: What else is up but cost of living?

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

The US stock markets were closed yesterday to observe National Day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter.

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

1.391 mil babies were born in October over the past 30 years, making it the month with the highest number of births in Malaysia. This was followed by 1.364 mil in September and 1.351 mil in August. Interestingly, the month with the fewest births was February, with 1.16 mil babies born. Data from the National Registration Department also shows that the most popular birth date in Malaysia was September 9, with 47,199 babies born on this date. The peak in births during these months suggests that many couples in Malaysia are likely to conceive during the year-end festive season, particularly in December and January. How was your malam jumaat?

18% is the record rise in homelessness in the US over the last year, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. 771,480 people, or about 23 out of every 10,000 people in the US, experienced homelessness in shelters, transitional housing, or unsheltered locations. The number of homeless individuals increased by 18% between 2023 and 2024, following a 12% rise the previous year. Children under 18 saw the largest increase, with a 33% rise, totaling 150,000 children experiencing homelessness.

50% of Harvard graduates who entered the workforce in 2024 took jobs in finance, consulting, or technology, a significant shift from earlier decades. In the 1970s, only 1 in 20 graduates went into these fields, rising to 1 in 5 in the 1980s and 1 in 4 in the 1990s, coinciding with Wall Street’s boom times. This change over the past 25 years reflects a broader trend toward these industries dominating the job market for elite graduates.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

2025, what else is up but cost of living?

Property prices: Real estate services company CBRE WTW Valuation and Advisory Sdn Bhd predicted that property prices in Klang Valley will rise by 3-4% in 2025, especially in the Petaling Jaya area. The company cited land scarcity and the rising cost of raw materials as the factors in the bump in property prices. But again, who are we kidding? An average Joe will not be able to buy a house in Klang Valley so why bother with this news. We are stuck in the rental market at the end of day. According to the National Affordable Housing Policy (DRMM) document that was released in 2019, only 35% of Malaysian households can afford to own a home with a price of RM250,000 and only 24% of the newly launched houses are priced less than RM250,000. I bet these statistics are more depressing if we focus on Klang Valley.

School bus fares: And if you have kids, it will get worse as the Malaysian School Bus Operators Association (GPBSM) is expected to proceed with an increase in school bus fares, ranging from RM5 to RM10 per student. The reasons behind the fare hike are due to higher maintenance costs and the implementation of the new minimum wage. However, GBPSM president Mohd Rofik Mohd Yusof iterated that the final price for the school bus fare depends on the mutual agreement between the bus operators and parents, without intervention from the government.

Income reclassification: Meanwhile, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli announced that Putrajaya plans to say bye-bye to the T20, M40 and B40 income classification and welcome a new approach based on net disposable income. Net disposable income refers to the income left after taxes, deductions, and essential living expenses, rather than just gross income. The new approach will be introduced to make it easier to identify the eligible recipient for the RON95 subsidy rationalisation.

Penang: Major projects in the pipelines
The Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) announced six new water projects worth over RM1.8 bil, with four projects due to kickstart this year. Below are the details of the six projects - 

• 2 new water treatment plants, one in Mengkeng Dam worth RM250 mil and another one in Kubang Kerian that costs RM402 mil, both have a combined capacity of 228 mil litres per day (MLD);

• A 13km pipeline from the Sungai Dua plant to Butterworth valued at RM128 mil;

• A 3.9km pipeline worth RM44 mil on Penang Island, connecting the Macallum area to the Bukit Dumbar Reservoir and Pumping Station Complex;

• 2 new water treatment plants, one of which has a capacity of 136 MLD in Sungai Perai for RM588 mil while the other has a capacity of 114 MLD in Sungai Muda for RM435 mil.

The projects stated above are set to address the issue of water-poor Penang. Do you know that Penang’s per capita domestic water consumption is higher than the national average, consuming 284 litres per capita per day (LCD) in 2023, while the national average was 237 LCD in 2022. In Singapore, the per capita domestic consumption stood at 141 LCD in 2023. So, Penang water is better than Singapore water?

Putrajaya is also currently mulling over funding the construction of the new RM7.5 bil, 19.5 km six-lane highway dubbed the Pan Island Link 1 (PIL 1) that will tunnel through the hill ranges of Penang Island connecting Gurney Drive to Bayan Lepas. PIL 1, which is applied under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), will cut travel time from Gurney Drive to the airport down to 15 minutes. However, the project received strong opposition from environmentalists when it was first mooted in 2019, citing sinking risks due to tunnelling through the ‘water-seeped’ fault lines of Penang Hill.

Doctors, are you okay?
The High Court ruled that two obstetrics specialists - Dr M Shanmugam and Dr A Ravi guilty of medical negligence after the duo left a critically bleeding patient in the delivery room to go for a drink. The negligence resulted in the eventual death of the patient, a few hours after giving birth at the Shan Maternity and Obstetrics Centre owned by Dr Shanmugam. The deceased’s family received RM5.99 mil in damages.

In a separate case, the Klang High Court ruled that two surgeons who worked at KPJ Klang Specialist Hospital were liable for the permanent disability that they inflicted on a patient. The permanent disability suffered by 38-year-old bank messenger Fahmi Hata was caused by the improper treatment given by the surgeon duo after a road accident a decade ago. Fahmi was awarded over RM850,000 in damages, to be paid 65:35 between the two surgeons.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Climate change disasters!

HEL.LA: Wildfire consumes Los Angeles neighborhoods and beyond
A major wildfire has engulfed an upscale section of Los Angeles, beginning two days ago, ravaging communities from the Pacific Coast to inland Pasadena. 130,000 people have been put under evacuation orders at the time of writing, with authorities reporting that the wildfire has covered an area twice the size of Manhattan. Five people were reported to perish from the disaster.

Preliminary analysis said that the wildfires could cost between USD52 bil (RM234.16 bil) to USD57 bil in damages and economic losses, as it burns down some of the country's most expensive real estate, where median home values exceed USD2 mil. Homes of Hollywood celebrities like Paris Hilton and Mark Hamill, among others, were reported to have burned down.

Prior to the fire, the National Weather Service had issued its highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los Angeles County from Tuesday through Thursday, predicting wind gusts of 80 to 130 kph with isolated winds of 130 to 160 kph in the mountains and foothills. Combined with low humidity and dry vegetation due to a lack of rain, it became the worst in terms of fire weather.

Wildfires are an expected part of life in the US West and play a vital role in the natural cycle. But, scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns that leads to such disasters.

Watch the LA fire blaze.

Bangkok gets ready for coldest weather in 40 years
Meteorologists are predicting the coldest temperature in 40 years for Bangkok this weekend, with temperatures dropping to as low as 16 degrees Celsius in the Thai capital. Experts also warn that people should remain cautious as the cooler season also brings harmful dust pollution from burning and other sources. A powerful high-pressure system from China will extend to Thailand and the South China Sea, bringing cooler temperatures, strong winds and increased fire risk due to the dry, windy conditions. Meanwhile, the northern and north-eastern regions of Thailand are forecast to see lows of 12°C. Nevertheless, cool weather is always welcomed for the typically unforgiving hot and humid tropical South East Asia.

Tech

• Meta removes fact-checking programme in US
  Meta has decided to scrap its US fact-checking programme, as part of its approach to manage political content on its services - a move that is also seen as a political appeasement to the upcoming Trump administration. The changes will affect Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the world’s biggest social media platforms with more than 3 bil users globally. In place of a formal fact-checking programme, Mark Zuckerberg instead plans to implement a system of “community notes” similar to that used on Elon Musk-owned X. The move came as a shock to the fact-checking community, with some commenting that it's a major step back for content moderation at a time when disinformation and harmful content are evolving faster than ever.

• TikTok continues to face legal backlash around the world
  TikTok might be the most popular app in the world now, but despite that, it has been confronted with legal and political scrutiny around the world in recent years, facing outright or partial bans in at least 20 countries. Governments have grown alarmed by its ties to China and its wide influence especially among young people, and lawmakers are alarmed that the app has turned from a domain of cat videos and dance trends into a potentially disruptive social, political and economic force. More than 1 bil people use TikTok every month, thanks to its proprietary and addictive algorithm.

Scam battles

• Singapore will let police control bank accounts to stop scammers 
  Singapore’s parliament has recently passed the Protection from Scams Bill law, giving police power to control bank accounts of individuals who are suspected to be the targets of scams. The new law allows police to impose restriction orders on bank accounts and credit facilities of individuals who police believe are likely to make withdrawals or monetary transfers to scammers. The bill originally intends to protect victims from remote scammers, but it has been broadened to cover other kinds of cheating cases involving physical interactions. At least SGD385.6 mil (RM1.27 bil) was lost to scams and cybercrime cases in Singapore in the first half of 2024, up 24.6% from the same period a year ago, according to police records.

• Indian government websites plagued with scam links 
  Meanwhile in India, TechCrunch has reported that the Indian government websites still allow the planting of scam links on their official domains, despite being reported about it earlier. TechCrunch found more than 90 “gov.in” website links associated with Indian government departments, as well as state governments were redirecting to sites linked to online betting and investment scams. India’s cyber agency CERT-In escalated the matter at the time, but nobody is sure if the government has really fixed the underlying flaws of the system which allows scammers to exploit and plant their links.

Shorts:

1. Japanese yakuza boss pleaded guilty of conspiring to sell nuclear material to Iran
   A Japanese yakuza member Takeshi Ebisawa has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to sell nuclear material from Myanmar to Iran. In 2020, he told an undercover agent who disguised as an Iranian general that he had a large quantity of thorium and uranium that he wished to sell, subsequently leading to his arrest, with help from law enforcers in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand. Ebisawa, who was previously charged in 2022 with international drug trafficking and firearms offences, faces possible life imprisonment for the most serious of the charges.
   

2. Nvidia boss statement may have shut down quantum computing stocks
   Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang who spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Tuesday may have caused quantum computing-related stocks to plunge, after he mentioned that "very useful" quantum computers are still likely 15-30 years away. Shares in Rigetti and Quantum Computing each fell around 47%, while IonQ fell 45% and D-Wave Quantum fell nearly 50%. The downturn marks a steep turnaround for the stocks after they surged at the end of 2024 following Google unveiling its new Willow chip. He also added that quantum computing is currently good at small data problems like cryptography, but lacks the technology to solve large data problems. Oops.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Apple vs NVIDIA: 1999 - Jan 2025. The insane catch up in NVIDIA share price!

2. A McD’s on fire in LA. Too soon?

3. Squid Game - Malaysia edition. The ending is epic. Caught the reference?

mgagmy

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